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Touchstone wireless charging mod?

Has anyone thought about stuffing the touchstone coil into the nexus4? It sounds stupid i know since the n4 already has wireless charging built in, but the chargers are expensive and hard to find while the touchstone chargers are cheap and plentiful.

peachpuff said:
Has anyone thought about stuffing the touchstone coil into the nexus4? It sounds stupid i know since the n4 already has wireless charging built in, but the chargers are expensive and hard to find while the touchstone chargers are cheap and plentiful.
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The Qi protocol requires that the receiver send a handshake to the transmitter to start charging. If a non-Qi device is on the plate, then it will do a start and stop every 20 sec to poll for the signal. I am working on changing the Touchstone coil to a Qi transmitter coil and see what happens. I received the Qi coil, Qi inductive charging sleeve (for testing) and waiting on a Palm touchstone sleeve. My concern is that the touchstone without the Qi communication on charging status may overheat the N4 if it doesn't stop the power transmission properly.

terracode said:
My concern is that the touchstone without the Qi communication on charging status may overheat the N4 if it doesn't stop the power transmission properly.
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People have put touchstone coil's in other phones and had no issues, i don't see how it would be any different here. There are 4 contact points that connect the qi coil and nfc on the rear cover, attach the touchstone coil to 2 of them and hope you can close the cover with everything inside.

peachpuff said:
People have put touchstone coil's in other phones and had no issues, i don't see how it would be any different here. There are 4 contact points that connect the qi coil and nfc on the rear cover, attach the touchstone coil to 2 of them and hope you can close the cover with everything inside.
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He's doing the opposite; he's replacing the coil in the touchstone charger with a QI charging coil.

I connected the Qi compliant coil to the Touchstone board and it didn't recognize the Qi receiver so it didn't start energy transfer. I then moved the thin wire coil that the Touchston uses to sense a Palm Receiver to above the Qi coil. The transmitter didn't start with a Qi receiver, but did recognize the Palm receiver and started energizing the coil. Issue was the voltage was very low due to the mismatched coils (Qi transmitter and TS receiver). I need to take apart the Touchstone receiver to see what it uses to activate the transmitter. More tinkering is needed.

I think QI controls the charging level from the phone, by communicating back to the charger. It may not be a good idea to disable this mechanism by swithing a charge coil on manually (though I'd think that the phone would not charge at all, then).
If you want to try, I think QI uses 141 KHz. Supply that to a coil at the correct power and see if it charges.

jutezak said:
I think QI controls the charging level from the phone, by communicating back to the charger. It may not be a good idea to disable this mechanism by swithing a charge coil on manually (though I'd think that the phone would not charge at all, then).
If you want to try, I think QI uses 141 KHz. Supply that to a coil at the correct power and see if it charges.
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I am actually doing the opposite. The Qi coil is on the transmit side attached to the touchstone charger power board. I need a way of sending a proper signal to the Palm Touchstone so that it energizes the coil. The Qi receiver doesn't have the proper interface to send a signal to the Touchstone to power up.

$50 is hardly expensive.... Wall Mart wanted $50 for a plug in travel charger for my galaxy tablet. Just find the lg one.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

Qi coil
terracode said:
I am actually doing the opposite. The Qi coil is on the transmit side attached to the touchstone charger power board. I need a way of sending a proper signal to the Palm Touchstone so that it energizes the coil. The Qi receiver doesn't have the proper interface to send a signal to the Touchstone to power up.
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So are you able to replace the qi coil successfully to TS?

For someone who want's multiple docks around, $50 does add up. For someone like me who has 2 or more touchstone chargers laying around from previous mods/palm phones this would be useful.
I've tried to do the following to my Nexus 4, but couldn't get off the back cover without damaging the phone (I could get everything but one corner of the phone to pop open, I noticed I was beginning to damage the body a bit and stopped trying).
Mind you, the following needs to be used with a case; works best with rugged cases/hard cases.
If anyone is able to open their phone up you can try my following idea:
1. Remove the back of the phone
2..There should be 4 pins, 2 for NFC, and 2 for the QI coil.
3. Use a voltmeter to find out which pin is positive and which is negative.
-- I am not sure if the touchstone coil could fit INSIDE the phone, so I assumed it would not fit, and came up with this solution--
4. Using copper tape (if you've modded your GNEX before, you probably have some left over) stick it onto the pins, and lead them outside of the back cover, wrapping around so you see the copper tape on the OUTSIDE of the phone
5. Close the phone back up, the copper tape should now be hanging outside of the side of the phone.
6. Get your touchstone coil and tape/adhere it to the inside of your selected case.
7. Take your copper tape yet again and solder it to the leads of the touchstone coil, and position the copper tape so it touches the existing tape (from the nexus) when you put the case onto your phone.
That's it. The touchstone should be thin enough so that it doesn't interfere with the fitting of the case. This was the situation for my previous two mods with Galaxy Nexus's, the fit of the case was no problem. (Otterbox Commuter, and SGP Neo-Hybrid).

DDRFAN said:
For someone who want's multiple docks around, $50 does add up. For someone like me who has 2 or more touchstone chargers laying around from previous mods/palm phones this would be useful.
I've tried to do the following to my Nexus 4, but couldn't get off the back cover without damaging the phone (I could get everything but one corner of the phone to pop open, I noticed I was beginning to damage the body a bit and stopped trying).
Mind you, the following needs to be used with a case; works best with rugged cases/hard cases.
If anyone is able to open their phone up you can try my following idea:
1. Remove the back of the phone
2..There should be 4 pins, 2 for NFC, and 2 for the QI coil.
3. Use a voltmeter to find out which pin is positive and which is negative.
-- I am not sure if the touchstone coil could fit INSIDE the phone, so I assumed it would not fit, and came up with this solution--
4. Using copper tape (if you've modded your GNEX before, you probably have some left over) stick it onto the pins, and lead them outside of the back cover, wrapping around so you see the copper tape on the OUTSIDE of the phone
5. Close the phone back up, the copper tape should now be hanging outside of the side of the phone.
6. Get your touchstone coil and tape/adhere it to the inside of your selected case.
7. Take your copper tape yet again and solder it to the leads of the touchstone coil, and position the copper tape so it touches the existing tape (from the nexus) when you put the case onto your phone.
That's it. The touchstone should be thin enough so that it doesn't interfere with the fitting of the case. This was the situation for my previous two mods with Galaxy Nexus's, the fit of the case was no problem. (Otterbox Commuter, and SGP Neo-Hybrid).
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Was this simply the metal coil or the entire assembly including board from a Pre charging cover? very Interested as I have a Nexus 4 I will be receiving Monday

singularityq said:
Was this simply the metal coil or the entire assembly including board from a Pre charging cover? very Interested as I have a Nexus 4 I will be receiving Monday
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You should only have to replace the metal coil.
OP, a simple google search would have sufficed http://www.webosnation.com/nexus-4-gains-touchstone-charging-thanks-clever-hacking

Case that covers ports that also works with QI charger?

Does one of these exist? I have a cheap TPU S-line case from ebay that I bought when the phone was first released. It works with the QI charger but it does not keep the dust out of the ports.
I bought two cheapies off ebay to test if something a little thicker would work with the QI charger and so far nothing does. Seems that any case that covers ports are thick and may not work with the QI charger.
BTW its the Energizer charger, not the official Google one.

Have you considered just getting a microusb port cover? http://www.moddiy.com/products/modDIY-Micro%2dUSB-Protective-Jack-Cover.html for example

ziddey said:
Have you considered just getting a microusb port cover? http://www.moddiy.com/products/modDIY-Micro%2dUSB-Protective-Jack-Cover.html for example
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I have but if a case exists that will work then I would like to give that a shot first. I notice the covers for the cases are snug fit so it wont allow dust in at all when a plug may leave room between it and the case. I work in a very dirty environment and would like to keep the phone itself as clean as possible.

[Q] fried audio jack

hi, i have accedentally fried my audiojack by connecting it to a 20v CURRENTsource. and yes it fried the audio jack or other components, and now my my works still fine, only the audio jack stoppped working, only with high volumes and the sound is very cracky with a lot of noise, can i fix this by just replacing the 3.5 jack module?

Hey, you posted in the wrong section, but ouch about your problem. Something similar happened to me with an iphone and the connector was just fine, it was the circuit board that was damaged, and the phone needed a whole motherboard replacement.
Maybe your backup solution will be playing audio through USB with an OTG cable and a portable DAC. I think it only works on some CM11 roms, never tried it myself.
There's a thread about it on this forum : http://www.head-fi.org/t/667838/samsung-galaxy-s4-compatible-portable-dac-amps/120
That or bluetooth.

Hi, yeah you should be able to replace it, found the part on eBay: Here
This video at 4:28 shows where it goes Youtube
Good luck!

cedric123 said:
hi, i have accedentally fried my audiojack by connecting it to a 20v CURRENTsource. and yes it fried the audio jack or other components, and now my my works still fine, only the audio jack stoppped working, only with high volumes and the sound is very cracky with a lot of noise, can i fix this by just replacing the 3.5 jack module?
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Replacing the port is easy. But the port is almost certainly not damaged. Its just metal. Metal doesn't mind a 20v current.
Its likely the board the port is attached to is fried at that point. That is much harder to repair, if it can be done at all.

can it be that just the connector to the plug is damaged? because i can play music on speaker fine

cedric123 said:
can it be that just the connector to the plug is damaged? because i can play music on speaker fine
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Can it be? Sure. Anything can happen.
The likelihood of it is very low though. The connector plug is nothing other than a metal hole with a bent price of metal inside that puts pressure on an inserted plug. There are some plastic insulator prices in there as well. But that is it. Its not a complex design, just metal and plastic.
You could put 500 volts through that plug without hurting the physical plug itself. Voltage isn't harsh to metal or plastic. Metal can handle it. Plastic doesn't even know high voltage is there. Now high amperage would fry the physical socket by overheating the metal to its melting point, but I would doubt that whatever 20v source you had a 3.5mm plug hooked into was producing high amperage. Even if you had it plugged directly into your home's wall socket the plug socket itself could handle it. You'd have to have hooked the socket up to a car battery to physically fry the socket.
Keep in mind that you could plug a million volts into the plug socket itself and not fry it because the plug wouldn't draw a ton of current. The receiving end of an electrical circuit determines how much amperage is drawn. You can't force amperage into a circuit, only voltage. Amperage is all determined by what is plugged in. (You can plug a vacuum cleaner into a wall socket and the socket will have 12 amps of power. But plug a desk lamp into the same socket and it will draw less than 1amp)
Now if the socket itself had an electrical short that would cause a larger amperage draw that could fry the metal itself or at least overheat it until the plastic insulators melted. But again you would have to plug it into a wall socket for that kind of power. It's unlikely that whatever was giving you 20v to a 3.5mm cable had any capability to produce amperage high enough to break the socket itself.
Also, if the socket itself did get fried you would know it without question. It would have made a nasty spark, smelled like burning, and the whole phone would probably not be working at all right now.
High voltage by itself though, without heavy amperage, can EASILY fry the circuit board components near the plug socket. And that wouldn't affect your speaker at all because the speaker is on the other side of the phone on a completely separate circuit board.

Skipjacks said:
Can it be? Sure. Anything can happen.
The likelihood of it is very low though. The connector plug is nothing other than a metal hole with a bent price of metal inside that puts pressure on an inserted plug. There are some plastic insulator prices in there as well. But that is it. Its not a complex design, just metal and plastic.
You could put 500 volts through that plug without hurting the physical plug itself. Voltage isn't harsh to metal or plastic. Metal can handle it. Plastic doesn't even know high voltage is there. Now high amperage would fry the physical socket by overheating the metal to its melting point, but I would doubt that whatever 20v source you had a 3.5mm plug hooked into was producing high amperage. Even if you had it plugged directly into your home's wall socket the plug socket itself could handle it. You'd have to have hooked the socket up to a car battery to physically fry the socket.
Keep in mind that you could plug a million volts into the plug socket itself and not fry it because the plug wouldn't draw a ton of current. The receiving end of an electrical circuit determines how much amperage is drawn. You can't force amperage into a circuit, only voltage. Amperage is all determined by what is plugged in. (You can plug a vacuum cleaner into a wall socket and the socket will have 12 amps of power. But plug a desk lamp into the same socket and it will draw less than 1amp)
Now if the socket itself had an electrical short that would cause a larger amperage draw that could fry the metal itself or at least overheat it until the plastic insulators melted. But again you would have to plug it into a wall socket for that kind of power. It's unlikely that whatever was giving you 20v to a 3.5mm cable had any capability to produce amperage high enough to break the socket itself.
Also, if the socket itself did get fried you would know it without question. It would have made a nasty spark, smelled like burning, and the whole phone would probably not be working at all right now.
High voltage by itself though, without heavy amperage, can EASILY fry the circuit board components near the plug socket. And that wouldn't affect your speaker at all because the speaker is on the other side of the phone on a completely separate circuit board.
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thanks for the answer, i used a source with charged capacitors(i hadnt got a soldering iron to fix my phone, so i melted the wires with a high current which worked, only i removed the 0 wire from the broken earphones before the 20v wire),yes very stupid, but i opened my phone, no visible damage, i saw a spark when it happend but i am happy it didnt do any more damage, i will buy a bluetooth headphone.

Otterbox Strada and magnetic car mount

Has anyone tried Otterbox Strada with a magnetic car mount?
Can the magnet work through 2 layers of case?
Any recommendations on a car mount for the Otterbox Strada?
A great case.
Shofar1

Not sure, but be careful if you wirelessly charge while having the case. The metal plate for your mount can get very hot while wirelessly charging if it isn't positioned right.

ryanpm40 said:
Not sure, but be careful if you wirelessly charge while having the case. The metal plate for your mount can get very hot while wirelessly charging if it isn't positioned right.
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Yes I have the Samsung wireless charger and while it works fine the S8+ does get hot.\
The Magnetic car mount I'm thinking of does not charge by itself.
I would use the car charger and a cable.
Thanks

How hard is it to destroy the V20's Type-C connector phsically?

How much force would I need to exert for the connector to break? I'm asking this because I've heard that the connector isn't replaceable without replacing the entire motherboard, and I'm a bit paranoid about it breaking:silly:. Thanks in advance!

p7810456 said:
How much force would I need to exert for the connector to break? I'm asking this because I've heard that the connector isn't replaceable without replacing the entire motherboard, and I'm a bit paranoid about it breaking:silly:. Thanks in advance!
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Owned g3, g4 and now v20. Totally normal to ask about this. Even if you protect your phones with cases and tempered glasses, two primary weak spots remain: motherboard battery contacts wearing out and breaking off (happened to me on my G4) and USB-C troubles. As both the battery connector and the USB-C port are soldered onto the motherboard, even if your phone is under warranty, the only fix is installing a new motherboard, losing the data (back up your data often!) As I was explained in the service center, taking the parts off the motherboard and soldering the new ones back on (that's only if you have a donor motherboard or parts to begin with) results in heating the surrounding circuitry area to the temps of up to 400c, risking damaging the metal tracks (or ripping the seating metal pucks for the parts off the board altogether on removal).
Since the g4 mishap, my solution for effectively protecting the USB port from wear, pulling and yanking damage is the permanent (but easily removable) magnetic USB-C insert that lives in your phone all the time and has magnetic studs on the outside plane that the charging cord snaps to. There are several manufacturers of those on Amazon, none are perfect but any of them is better than using your port "raw" daily. WZKEN makes tangle-free USB-C cords with strong contact between the insert and the cord. The cords (at least in my case) support Qualcomm quick charge 2. When connected through a WZKEN cord, my Anker QC2 charger plug changes light from blue to green to indicate QC and my phone notifies me QC is on, so the QC handshake works as expected.
One thing though if you go the magnetic rout - order MORE inserts than cords, if your USB-C port is loose, the inserts might fall out every once in a while, you'll lose them. Also I haven't seen any magnetic cords with light indicators that change color when QC kicks in, all the light shows is that there's electricity in the port on the wall charger that your cord is connected to. Also, WZKEN cord heads snap to the inserts the right side up only, not on either side.
Whatever the quirks, beats the every day pounding that USB-C ports take by far, especially knowing v20 doesn't charge wirelessly! Inserts are small enough to fit into all port cutouts on all cases I have, so no problem there, either.
The solution is so simple that I charge most of the micro-USB and USB-C devices in my house this way.

p7810456 said:
How much force would I need to exert for the connector to break? I'm asking this because I've heard that the connector isn't replaceable without replacing the entire motherboard, and I'm a bit paranoid about it breaking:silly:. Thanks in advance!
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Very very hard.
Sent from my LG V20 using XDA Labs